Peace Arch
From Wikinfo
| Peace Arch | |
|---|---|
| (U.S. National Register of Historic Places) | |
| | |
| Location: | Blaine, WA |
| Coordinates: | |
| Built/Founded: | 1921 |
| Architect: | Harvey Wiley Corbett |
| Architectural style(s): | Classical Revival |
| Added to NRHP: | December 13, 1996 |
| NRHP Reference#: | 96001493 [1] |
| Governing body: | Local |
The Peace Arch is a monument situated on the Canada-United States border between the communities of Blaine, Washington and Surrey, British Columbia. The Peace Arch, which stands 20.5 meters (67.2 ft.) tall, was built by Sam Hill and dedicated in September of 1921, and commemorates the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in 1814. The monument is built on the exact United States-Canada boundary, between Interstate 5 and Highway 99, in the grass median between the northbound and southbound lanes. The Peace Arch has the flags of the U.S. and Canada mounted on its crown, and two inscriptions on both sides of its frieze. The inscription on the U.S. side of the Peace Arch reads "Children of a common mother", and the words on the Canadian side read "Brethren dwelling together in unity". Within the arch, each side has an iron gate hinged on either side of the border with an inscription above reading "May these gates never be closed". Peace Arch Park consists of Peace Arch Provincial Park on the Canadian side and Peace Arch State Park on the American side of the border. Within the park is a major border crossing which has never closed, symbolising a long history of peace between the two nations.
In Canada, the crossing is officially named Douglas, in honour of Sir James Douglas, the first governor of the Colony of British Columbia. Because of the Peace Arch monument, however, the border crossing between Surrey and Blaine is popularly known as the "Peace Arch Border Crossing," one of the busiest border crossings between Canada and the United States. It is the busiest such crossing west of Detroit.
Gallery
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Notes
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2007-01-23. http://www.nr.nps.gov/.
External links
| This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Peace Arch. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. The text of this Wikinfo article is available under the GNU Free Documentation License and the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. |
